Hammer: Odyssey of an Entrepreneur

Book Review

Anyone even mildly interested in the tumultuous history of the mid-20th
century will find in Hammer a wealth of first-hand insights
into events of the era from the perspective of one who was there. His
remarkable involvement ranges from meetings with Lenin and Trotsky in
famine-plagued Russia in 1921 to discussions with Reagan and Gorbachev
over the Chemobyl incident in 1986. Written with the assistance of author
Neil Lyndon, Hammer is a remarkable story of a committed
capitalist whose energy, skill and entrepreneurial spirit propel him to
frequent and sometimes significant involvement in the ebb and flow of
relations between nations. In describing the human interaction he witnessed
from behind the scenes in several world events, he emphasizes a dominant
theme: that straightforward communications between nations cannot be allowed
to break down and that a "trusted intermediary" can often accomplish
progress when official channels are impotent.

Born on the lower east side of New York in 1898 to Russian immigrant
parents, Armand Hammer was the second of three sons, a leader from
his earliest years. His mother justified extra attention to his
younger brother by saying "Armand can take care of himself
and everyone else as well."

Hammer traces his family name to Judah Maccabee of ancient Israel,
also called "Judah the Hammer," who led a rebellion that
recaptured Jerusalem in 164 B.C. The family retained the name Hammer
when they migrated to Russia and later to America. His father, Julius,
a passionate socialist, claimed to have given him the name Armand
in honor of the hero of a Dumas play. Hammer suspected, however,
that his real motivation was the arm and hammer symbol of his beloved
Socialist Labor Party. In later years the name Armand Hammer inevitably
led new acquaintances to associate him with the manufacturer of
household baking soda. He recounts with relish his later quixotic
efforts, partially successful, to acquire ownership of that firmthereby
allowing him to answer truthfully that he was, indeed, the "baking
soda king."

In 1917, while studying medicine, Hammer was asked by his father
to manage the family interest in a troubled pharmaceutical enterprise.
Armand's entrepreneurial spirit quickly became apparent. Through
a combination of skill, hard work and luck, his company, Allied
Drug and Chemical, cornered the world market in ginger and became
the principal supplier of tincture of ginger, a very profitableand
legalalcoholic product during the early years of Prohibition.
In the year 1919, when the average income in the United States was
$625 a year, Hammer's personal income from his business was over
$1 million net, all accomplished while continuing his medical studies.

In 1921, at age 23, Hammer reached a turning point in his life.
Graduating that year from the Columbia Medical School, he was faced
with a wait of six months before his much sought internship in medical
research was to begin. Reading about the disastrous famine in Russia,
he determined to go there to offer his medical services. During
his travels in Russia, he was astonished to find stores of valuable
furs, minerals and other goods going to waste while the people were
starving. He offered to send a shipload of grain from the United
States in exchange for goods of equal value. That was the beginning
of a profitable trading relationship with the Soviet Union.

Hammer was and is a fervent defender of the American free enterprise
system but he became, through his Russian experience, an unabashed
admirer of Vladimir Lenin. He maintains to this day that Lenin was
one of the great leaders of history, and he considers his personal
acquaintance with Lenin and the mutual regard they developed for
each other to be a highlight of his career.

Hammer left Russia in 1931 as the era of Stalinist purges and
repression began. One can only speculate how the Russian revolution
might have evolved if more realistic, humane leaders, one of whom,
in Hammer's view, was Lenin, had held power during the 30s and 40s.

During his nine years in Russia, Hammer applied his entrepreneurial
skill to a variety of enterprises including asbestos mining, the
manufacture of pencils, the importation of Ford tractors and cars,
and the purchase of numerous works of art that had belonged to those
dispossessed by the revolution. Following his return to the United
States with large quantities of Russian art, Hammer pioneered new
marketing methods to dispose of these treasures, including department
stores sales. Later he used the same approach to sell parts of the
William Randolph Hearst collection when the Hearst empire was badly
in need of cash.

A dominant theme of Hammer's life is his distaste for war. As
a young boy he was appalled by stories of the trench warfare of
World War I. In his later life he considered his efforts to promote
trade as a major step toward building understanding between contending
nations. He frequently quoted Benjamin Franklin's axiom: "trading
nations seldom make war," and has been a consistent advocate
of closer trade relations between the United States and communist
countries.

In the days immediately preceding United States' entry into World
War II, Hammer became a passionate advocate of aid to Britain. He
"fell under the spell" of his greatest hero, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
whose charm, intellect and wit completely captivated Hammer. In
later years following Roosevelt's death, Hammer purchased the Roosevelt
family cottage at Campobello, invited Eleanor Roosevelt to use it
frequently during her lifetime and, following her death, donated
it as an international park between the United States and Canada.

Hammer's business success was not matched by success in his personal
life. His first two marriages ended in divorce and considerable
personal unhappiness. When he married his third wife, Frances, while
in his late 50s, he retired to California determined to separate
himself from business activities. However, while managing their
investments, Hammer became involved with a small, shaky oil company
called Occidental Petroleum. Within a year, his flair for entrepreneurship
rekindled, and he shortly became the majority stockholder, president
and CEO of Occidental. Through astute handling of oil leases, aggressive
drilling techniquesas well as his usual luckOccidental
soon began to return sizable profits. Since then it has become a
major player in the oil business. Hammer remains its chief executive
officer today.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Hammer, in the long twilight of
his career, worked to promote political accommodation among world
leaders. He met frequently with Brezhnev during the Nixon and Carter
years and felt he contributed to the detente that existed during
the 70s between the United States and the Soviet Union.

At the time of the Chernobyl incident in 1986, Hammer, then in
his late 80s, saw an opportunity to improve Soviet/American relations.
He sponsored a group of American doctors to work closely with their
Russian counterparts in the intricate bone marrow transplants that
were the only hope for many of the radiation victims. As a party
trusted by both sides, he contributed to the resolution of the Daniloff
case that opened the way to the Reykjavik Summit of 1986. Following
a high-level meeting, Gorbachev was quoted as asking "Where
does Hammer get his energy?"

Hammer is clearly proud of his life's accomplishments and takes
relish in recounting the names of the great and near great with
whom he's met and dealt. His story is a fascinating and easily read
account of the power and influence exerted by one exceptional private
citizen in the affairs of 20th century businesses and nations.